


Young

by Issinder



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Pocket Prodigies, Pursued by a Bear, Young Cid and Nero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 09:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16385768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Issinder/pseuds/Issinder
Summary: Two prodigies go on a field trip.





	Young

A clever prank, their classmates had called it amongst themselves as they played cards and laughed. Tell the Pocket Prodigies there’s going to be an unexpected field exercise planned early in the morning, where each pair of soldiers has their own map and objective. Whoever succeeds in completing the objective before the other students wins the respect of the officers and a week of no chores. Of course, Nero was especially charmed by the respect of his betters, the country boy, and Cid just wanted out of the duty of scrubbing the latrines, which he felt was beneath him. They had played their cards just right and were now looking forward to an entire day of no annoying know-it-alls in class who answered every question before it was even asked.

The next day, Cid and Nero left the Academy early, all packed and prepared for a long trek, map in hand. They would have noticed not a single other recruit was leaving if they had been sleeping in the same space, but their age in combination with some social adjustment issues had made that particular situation untenable, so the pair had been shoved together in a room that was really only meant to house a single person. For the most part they made it work. Sometimes, however, one of them forgot the schedule, which usually meant some arguing, shrieking and minor altercations ensued until the pair were pulled apart. In times like those, the two really showed their age, to the entertainment and annoyance of their classmates.

‘Is this truly the way?’ Nero said incredulously.  
Cid checked the map. ‘Down to the yalm.’  
‘Let me see that,’ Nero demanded, reaching out for the map. Cid pulled it out of his reach.  
‘I can read a bloody map, Scaeva.’  
‘Clearly you cannot, for how would this possibly be a part of any exercise?’  
Cid shrugged. ‘Like I made the bloody rules.’  
‘I mean, just look at that thing,’ Nero said, eyes widening.  
Cid turned around. ‘What thing?’  
‘Ha!’ Nero had made use of the momentary lapse in Cid’s concentration to wrest the map from his grasp. ‘Now, let’s see where we’re really going.’  
Nero poured over the map for a hot minute, then concluded: ‘We’re going here.’  
Cid smirked. ‘I told you, Scaeva. Next time, just listen to me.’  
‘The hells I will,’ the taller youth responded, reluctantly handing the map back to Cid. ‘Well, if the artefact is here, we need to find it and quickly too.’

The boys scoured the land, but there was nothing that even remotely looked like the artefact they were looking for. The rain, which had initially just been a light drizzle, had begun to come down in force as both Cid and Nero tried in various different ways to measure where the artefact would be buried.  
‘Clearly, these directions are only meant to confuse us,’ Cid commented.  
‘Clearly,’ Nero agreed, ‘but if the only clue we have is a bogus one, then…?’  
‘Then we must find a different way to solve the problem.’  
‘Such as? The map has no secret code of any kind. At least, not that we can see. It’s very clear on what it wants us to do.’  
At this point, the pair were getting soaked and it was no good arguing. Cid looked up at the clouds, then at their surroundings. ‘Maybe we should just shelter for a moment. For one, the map is getting soaked, and if we’re unsure of how to proceed then just standing here gets us nowhere.’  
Nero nodded. ‘The cave, perhaps?’  
Cid looked to where his nemesis was pointing. ‘Yes. Close by and dry.’  
‘Such a poet, Garlond. Are you sure you’re not missing out on your calling by following in my footsteps?’  
Cid gave him a look. ‘Shut it, Scaeva. If anyone is following in anyone’s footsteps, you’re following in mine.’

The two boys argued until they reached the mouth of the cave.  
‘Perhaps if you’d just listened to me and discarded the concept of a faux-ceruleum engine-’ Nero started as they went inside.  
‘It’s clearly where the future lies,’ Cid argued.  
‘Not in Garlemald, it isn’t,’ Nero replied.  
‘Then we’ll just pull the resources from elsewhere.’  
‘Right, of course, because clearly no one else is using them.’  
‘We need them more. Let the magic races magic their way out of their problems.’  
‘Come on, Garlond. Even I know it isn’t that simple.’  
‘Nero-’  
‘Oh, what!’ Nero cried, just about ready to throw Cid back into the rain. The growl coming from outside made him rethink the notion. ‘Bears,’ he squeaked.  
‘Yep,’ Cid squeaked in agreement.

A family of brown bears were also seeking the protection of the cave to get out of the rain. Had the Garleans bothered to look closer, they probably would have realised that the bears lived here and they were trespassing. The mother and her two cubs halted as she noticed the two lanky human forms in her hideout.  
‘Now what?’ Nero whispered to Cid. No answer came, however, as Cid was frozen in terror. Nero rolled his eyes. ‘Great timing on shitting yourself, Garlond.’  
Nero’s insults always managed to get Cid riled up and the taller youth knew it. Cid gave him a dirty look. ‘I was not shitting myself.’  
‘Oh, so that’s bear musk, then? Good to know since it’s hard to tell the difference.’

The mother bear lumbered up to the pair and started sniffing them, lipping at Nero’s hair.  
‘You should really use less product,’ Cid whispered.  
‘You should shut up,’ Nero responded, trying not to whimper as the bear’s hot breath hit his face. Satisfied there was nothing else of note about this human stick, the mother bear moved on to Cid. Now this one smelled interesting, especially the backpack he was carrying.

Back at the Academy, one of the students elbowed another.  
‘Do you think they discovered the surprise we left in their pack yet?’  
‘By now, surely they must have?’  
‘I’m still impressed by how you managed to put the bugger together so quickly,’ the first student said.  
The other puffed out his chest. ‘I, too, am a genius. Don’t forget.’  
‘How loud do you think the bang will be?’  
‘Not enough to shatter the ear drums, but surely enough to give the little shits a good fright.’  
‘You are such a wank.’

The mother bear walked behind Cid, attempting to stuff her nose inside the pack.  
‘Did you close the straps?’ Nero whispered.  
‘Of course I did,’ Cid insisted quietly.  
‘Alright, just asking.’  
Mother bear smelled something she liked. She pushed Cid over and he landed face-first into the mud. Nero would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so dire and one of the bear cubs wasn’t taking a piss on his boots. Sharp teeth pulled at the straps on the pack and the flap came undone.

What followed could be officially labelled as a clusterfuck. The flashbang exploded in the mother bear’s face and the cubs, frightened out of their minds, ran further into the cave. Nero, startled by the entire ordeal but not as much as mama bear was, dragged Cid away from her and out into the rain.

‘I can’t run!’ The white-haired youth cried. The startled bear had clawed at his leg, Nero saw, and while it was not quite useless, running of any kind was certainly out of the question.  
‘Think, Nero,’ the taller boy said out loud. Mama bear would only be distracted for so long. They needed a save place now. He scanned the surroundings and spotted a crack in the wall that looked big enough to house the two of them. He squeezed inside and pulled Cid along with him. The crack was in fact quite deep, and the pair were both a decent way in when they heard the roar of the bear as she rushed out of the cave, teeth bared and ready to kill the creature who had dared threaten her and her cubs.  
‘Why on earth did you pack a flashbang, Garlond?’ Nero sneered.  
‘I didn’t, Scaeva,’ Cid bit back.  
‘Well, someone did and now there is a very real chance we’re going to be bear food.’  
‘Perhaps if you weren’t such a pillock all the time-’  
‘Right, and you’re a fine example of how to make friends-’  
‘I have more friends than you.’  
‘You have zero friends, Garlond.’  
‘If I have zero friends, you have a minus amount of friends.’  
‘Those are called enemies, Garlond, and we both have those in droves.’

The discussion was rudely interrupted by a clawed paw reaching into the crack.

‘There’s an enemy right now,’ Nero hissed.  
‘Very funny.’  
‘None of this is even remotely funny unless we actually survive.’  
‘What do you suggest we do, then?’  
Nero thought for a moment. ‘I suggest we do nothing.’  
‘Nothing? Are you mad?’  
‘She’ll lose interest once we’re no longer moving. We’ll have to wait it out.’  
Cid grit his teeth, his injured leg throbbing. ‘If I bleed to death, Scaeva, I swear-’  
‘You won’t,’ Nero responded, though he was actually unsure. The wound looked pretty bad. He attempted a squat and just about managed it. ‘It’s mostly superficial damage,’ he said, inspecting the wound up close, or at least as close as he could get. He wriggled out of his jacket and ripped a piece off of his uniform, made strips out of it and began bandaging the wound so it wouldn’t bleed any further. Cid grudgingly let him, all the while keeping an eye on the bear who eyed him in turn, still trying to paw at them.  
‘There, set,’ Nero said, awkwardly moving upright again and wriggling his coat back on.  
‘Thanks, Nero,’ Cid said.  
‘You… called me Nero.’  
‘I won’t make a habit of it.’  
Cid leaned against the wall, suddenly very tired of the whole affair.  
‘Would you care for a hypothesis?’ he said.  
‘Go crazy, Garlond,’ Nero said, closing his eyes.  
‘This whole thing is a prank from the older students. There was never an actual exercise and we fell for it because we’re bloody eager.’  
Nero sighed. ‘I’m going to say that hypothesis is probably correct, but we’ll have to get back to the academy to be sure.’

Meanwhile, at the Academy, the second-year group Cid and Nero were a part of were separated from the others as the principal of the Academy gave them a stern lecture about how to treat their peers, especially those who would one day define the very future of Magitek. This yielded very little result, however, as the group had bonded over a shared hatred of the two youths who sought to upstage them and each other at every turn. It took a good long while before one of them cracked because he was bored, and the staff were finally told where the two prodigies had been sent.

It had been about a bell, Nero guessed, and mother bear was beginning to tire of her sport. She snorted a few times, loudly, and went inside the cave to care for her cubs. Cid and Nero both released a breath they weren’t aware they had been holding, and Cid cautiously moved to the opening, careful not to make a sound, Nero following a bit behind.

Cid poked his head out of the crack and noticed that it had stopped raining. He looked to the mouth of the cave where the bear had disappeared inside.  
‘I think we’re okay to go,’ he said.  
‘Excellent. Hobble along, then.’  
Cid hobbled out carefully, trying to keep the weight off his bad leg while remaining quiet at the same time. Nero came out behind him, taking his army knife from its sheath on his thigh, ready to at least stab any creature that tried anything.  
‘We should head back to the academy,’ Cid said.  
‘Indeed. This whole exercise made us miss Modern Aerodynamics.’  
Cid moaned. That was his favourite class by malms.

On the way back, they came past the spot where the “hidden artefact” was supposedly stashed. It was currently nothing more than a mess of muddy soil with bits of metal poking out. It just looked like some rusty farm equipment.  
‘A truly amazing artefact,’ Cid mused.  
‘A wonder of the ancients,’ Nero added.  
Then, they both burst out laughing.

‘We’re such a bunch of shits,’ Cid said.  
‘I cannot fathom how we ever even thought this was an actual Academy assignment,’ Nero replied, wiping the tears from his eyes. Cid walked over to a log and sat down to take the weight off his bad leg.  
‘We may be brilliant in some things, but utterly hopeless in others,’ he said, taking a stick and drawing shapes in the mud. Nero sat down next to him, watching him draw. He reached down and placed a flat hand in the mud, waited a few seconds, then pulled it out, leaving a neat hand print. Cid looked at his nemesis, then reached down and did the same. Nero took his knife and wrote his name above the print, Cid doing the same with his stick.

‘It won’t last. The rains will just wash it away,’ Nero commented.  
‘True, but it’s here now,’ the white-haired boy remarked.  
‘Indisputably.’  
Cid frowned. ‘Do you hear that?’  
The boys looked up to see a small aircraft making its way toward them.  
‘Look at that, the Academy sent us transport,’ Nero smirked. ‘Not that they wouldn’t, what with the son of Midas nan Garlond out in the wild.’  
‘Shall I leave you here, then?’ Cid asked drily.  
‘I think I’ll come with, if it’s all the same to you,’ Nero replied in equal measure.

As they entered the aircraft, both boys looked back at their hand prints in the mud. The next day, it would rain again and they would disappear completely, but at least for today the boys made their mark. It would have to do.


End file.
